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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
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ABORIGINAL LANDS PARLIAMENTARY STANDING COMMITTEE: ANNUAL REPORT 2011-12

The Hon. L.R. BREUER (Giles) (11:43): On behalf of the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation in another place, I move:

That the annual report 2011-12 of the committee be noted.

This is the eighth annual report of the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee. It provides a summary of the committee's activities for the financial year ending 30 June 2012. Over the last year, the committee has met with a wide range of Aboriginal people in their communities. These meetings have given the committee and the South Australian parliament a better understanding of the issues that are of importance to Aboriginal South Australians.

During the year, the committee visited the APY lands, Oak Valley and Maralinga, as well as Nepabunna, the Gerard Aboriginal community, Winkie Primary School, the Port Lincoln Aboriginal Corporation and other Aboriginal organisations and support organisations within Adelaide.

The committee also visited Western Australia to gain insight into the initiatives that are working well in the resources, private and public sectors to skill, employ and retain Aboriginal employees in the workplace.

With the burgeoning resources sector in South Australia seen as a potential growth area for employment, particularly for Aboriginal people, the committee perceived benefit in inquiring into and meeting with some of the key employers and service providers in the established resources sector in Western Australia. The committee would particularly like to thank Rio Tinto Australia for their generosity and their time in assisting the committee in their visit.

In June 2011, the Legislative Council referred the Stolen Generations Reparations Tribunal Bill 2010 to the committee for inquiry. The inquiry has received a number of submissions and heard evidence from 12 witnesses from eight Aboriginal support agencies. The inquiry is due to finish hearing evidence later this year. During the year the committee also heard evidence from witnesses from a number of state agencies and Aboriginal support organisations. I would like to thank the people who provided the information to the committee.

I am also thankful to all members of the committee, past and present, for their dedication and hard work. I would particularly like to thank the previous minister, the Hon. Paul Caica, other previous members—the member for Mitchell, the member for Norwood, the President of the other place, the member for Ramsay, the member for Port Adelaide, and the member Florey—for their contribution to the committee as well as acknowledge the current members of the committee for their ongoing efforts. Some of them, like me, are new to the committee. They are: the Hon. Russell Wortley MLC, the member for Kaurna, the Hon. Terry Stephens, the member for Morphett, and the Hon. Tammy Franks.

I am very pleased to be back on this committee, which I was on for many years, and I anticipate that we will do some good work in the next 12 months. We also would like to thank all the Aboriginal people that the committee has met with over the past year. We appreciate their willingness to discuss the issues and share their stories and their knowledge with the committee.

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (11:47): The Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee is one of those committees of parliament that has an unusual make-up, with the minister as the presiding member. Members in this place who know my history with the committee (having been on it right from the word go with a short break in between) know that I think this is an arrangement that is not satisfactory. The committee does work exceptionally well as a committee deliberating on issues and inquiring into the concerns of Aboriginal groups right across Australia, but it is a bit peculiar when the minister has to write to him or herself about an issue and then write back to themselves as the presiding member of the committee. I have a private member's bill being drafted at the moment to change that arrangement. I understand the government is looking at a similar change, and I look forward to that if that is the case.

The way this committee is set up at the moment, it has not worked as efficiently as it could. Over all the years I have been involved with the committee, since my coming to parliament in 2002, it has examined a broad range of Aboriginal affairs. There is always the rider in the terms of reference for any committee: 'any other relevant matter'. While it is the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee, we have looked at everything from education, health, housing, transport, the way that government bureaucrats work, and also the relationship with state and federal government bureaucrats. The sobering fact is that we spend $1.3 billion a year on 30,000 Aboriginal people in this state. The federal and state budget is $1.3 billion a year—$50,000 per man, woman and child. I can say from firsthand witnessing that the plight of some of the Aboriginal people in South Australia is absolutely deplorable.

I am currently hosting in parliament—in fact I have just abandoned him in the members' lounge—Dr Luc Malimbalimba from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he is a young member of the parliament. He has been describing to me some of the issues they have with malaria, tetanus, with the 700,000 constituents in his own electorate of the 72½ million people in the Congo. They have some significant issues. It is a sad fact that you can travel to the north-west of South Australia and see people who have some significant health issues and living concerns. The tyranny of distance is very, very evident.

It is an interesting fact that, if you want to drive from Adelaide to Pipalyatjara, which is in the far north-west corner of South Australia, it is about the same distance as driving from Melbourne to Sydney. The sad part about that is that the last 600 kilometres are over very, very rough roads. If you go on to the APY executive website you will see there a warning about travelling on the roads in the APY lands. It is a deplorable situation up there where school buses, teachers, doctors, nurses and the people themselves have to travel over roads that shake their vehicles to pieces.

We need to make sure that the $200 million we are spending in the APY lands each year is being put to the best use possible, and I am working with the committee to make sure we examine expenditure and can be assured that taxpayers' money (which is where that money is coming from) is being put to good use not only for the sake of taxpayers but also for the sake of the people to whom the money is being directed.

The Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee visits not only the APY lands but all the communities around Australia. We recently undertook a visit to Point Pearce on Yorke Peninsula, and it is great to see the changes going on over there, the progress that is being made, and the financial returns coming to the community to make the community more financially independent so they can further their own goals is great to see. The Ngarrindjeri groups at Camp Coorong we visited a few weeks ago, and they are also making great steps forward.

A lot of good things are happening in Aboriginal affairs, but the role of this committee is one which we need to make sure it is not in any way restricted by having the minister as the presiding member of the committee. I hope the government looks at the proposal. It is not the first time I have spoken about it in this place. This committee is one of the very few examples of truly multi-partisan policy-making or deliberation, and it is a vital committee for the Aboriginal and white people of South Australia.

The committee does need to change its structures and does need to make sure that the reports are being more widely circulated and that everybody in South Australia and not just the Aboriginal people understand what we are trying to achieve with the committee system in the parliament, particularly with this committee. I am delighted to say that all members on the committee all get on exceptionally well. The hardworking committee secretaries over the years have done an excellent job in organising us. It is worse than herding cats: it is like herding butterflies, getting members of parliament together for these trips.

Trying to go away to the APY lands for three or four days at a time is very difficult. But the hardworking secretaries have been able to do that and have been able to coordinate witnesses coming in to speak to us. Many of those witnesses have had to travel many kilometres to come and visit us. It is a committee that I am pleased to be on. I hope to continue on this committee. I look forward to the continued cooperation between all members of the committee, particularly the government, in rearranging the make-up of that committee. I congratulate the current members of the committee on the work they are doing, and I look forward to continuing my time with them.

Motion carried.

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